This invention relates to systems and apparatus for displaying goods or articles to prospective purchasers in stores and shops.
In retail stores, such as supermarkets and the like, where articles to be purchased are selected "off the shelf" by the shopper, it is customary to display merchandise on shelves which render it open to view and easily removable. Traditionally, in supermarkets for example, the shelves are arranged in long rows forming aisles through which the shoppers pass. In such arrangements, many different products are displayed in successive sections of the rows of shelves, sometimes making it difficult to locate a specific article that the shopper wishes to purchase. The usual aisle arrangement also limits the effectiveness of so-called "point of purchase" advertising displays, designed to attract shoppers to a particular product.
To overcome these problems, merchants occasionally employ individual shelf displays or islands, free-standing and set off from the aisles formed by the row of shelves, so that they are more visible to the shopper. Such individual units lend themselves to prominent display of a single product and can support point-of-purchase advertising effectively to attract the customer's attention.
Various forms of such free-standing display units are known in the prior art. Some types employ a plurality of vertical standards between which shelves or display racks are suspended; others employ a single post to which shelves or display racks are fastened. The latter type has a particular advantage in that it provides greater visibility for the product displayed, since the display structure itself is less prominent. Heretofore however, such single post shelving units have not become popular because of the complexity required of those known constructions to render them stable and capable of supporting substantial loads, and the attendant high cost.